Duncan Castles shed some light on Manchester United’s unsuccessful pursuit of Barcelona winger Ousmane Dembele during the most recent edition of The Transfer Window podcast.
The Red Devils were linked with a move for the French attacker ahead of Monday’s transfer deadline, with reports claiming that his transfer was seen as being ‘more possible to pull off’ than the transfer of Borussia Dortmund winger Jadon Sancho, who was allegedly United’s ‘main target’ during the most recent transfer window.
Castles shed some light on why that transfer didn’t end up happening on the most recent edition of The Transfer Window podcast, saying: “What ended up happening was, on the final day of the window, they get involved in negotiations with the player and his agent.
“It took them until after lunchtime to get a yes from Dembele that he was ready to join Manchester United on that final day and do it in a loan rather than a permanent transfer.
“They then go into negotiations with Barcelona, who all along had said, ‘we do not want to loan this player unless there is an obligation to buy, because he has two years left on his contract.’
“They take until late afternoon to get [to] a position where Barcelona say – ‘okay, we will let you have him on a single season loan with no obligation to buy but the player has to sign a new contract because we want the value secured.’
“Dembele’s agent and Dembele refused to sign that new contract with Barcelona. To ask them to agree a new contract in the space of a few hours on deadline day was always unrealistic.
“[Ole Gunnar] Solskjaer then pushed Manchester United to do the deal regardless and buy the player, take advantage of the fact that Barcelona needed to raise cash on deadline day, again, something everyone had been aware of.
“The price was negotiated down from what had been an original €100m and got to sort of €80m, €70m on the day, then to €60m to buy, but the deal fell through, partly because, as I understand it, Manchester United weren’t prepared to spend €60m on their second choice and secondly because Dembele and his agent didn’t want to commit to a long-term contract in such a short period of time.”
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TIF Thoughts…
So, judging by what Castles had to say, it seems that this deal simply didn’t suit all parties involved at any point in the negotiating process and that is why the transfer didn’t end up happening.
It will be interesting to see if Dembele remains a target for Manchester United in future transfer windows as his current contract with Barcelona gets closer to its expiration date of 30th June 2022, or if the Red Devils end their interest in the player altogether following this unsuccessful pursuit.
If United do maintain their interest in Dembele, then perhaps they will be able to negotiate his transfer fee even lower, considering that his contract will be that much closer to expiring.
As per Transfermarkt, Dembele is currently valued at £50.4m and his value has decreased significantly since it reached its peak of £108m back in February 2019, so maybe United were right not to rush this transfer through on deadline day despite the club reportedly ‘prioritising’ the signing of a wide forward on Monday.